Geo-Strategy #2: Christian Zionism and the Middle East Conflict

okay um let's start class we're continuing the United States Iran War um as I've said in in the previous class the United States will invade Iran we don't know when it might be two years from now it might be six years from now okay but eventually it will happen and in today's class I want to go over some of the reasons why the United States will invade Iran and um I believe that there'll be three major reasons okay uh the first major reason is the United States must defend its Empire second major reason is that the United States will be pressured by its allies mainly Saudi Arabia and Israel into invading Iran and the third reason is um the Israel Lobby okay so in this in today's class I want to explain to you what the Israel Lobby is but first I need to I need you to understand what Christianity is okay so remember that Christianity it's a religion about a man Jesus who we know very little about okay we think that he was born in 4 BCE and then he died in 31 uh BC uh sorry CE Comm era um we know that he is from a place called Galilee we know know that the Romans crucified him and that's about it okay uh what his Believers say is that he is God come to Earth and he was preaching a gospel or a message that God is returning the Kingdom of Heaven is coming and after he was crucified he was resurrected and then he went to heaven and what's really important is that Jesus with will eventually return okay and this is called Second Coming okay this is the second coming of Jesus and when he comes he will bring Heaven onto Earth and we will all live forever in peace okay so that's the story of Jesus then the question then is why this religion become so popular so popular in fact that today about two billion people believe in it okay it's the most popular most power religion in the world and at first the appeal of Christianity is that it was a revolutionary religion that promised a better world to the world's oppressed okay so if you look at the early people who follow Christianity it was slaves peasants wom okay people who are marginalized in society and the idea of Jesus is that a better world is coming where everyone will be equal okay the meek shall inherit the earth so if you think about it Christianity uh is appealing because what it is it's a free lottery ticket does that make sense it's a lottery ticket it cost you nothing and hey if it's right then you go to heaven okay so at first Christianity was an extremely revolutionary religion and its basic characteristics in the beginning were uh it was revolutionary it was egalitarian um and it was anti Authority and so these individuals who before were out castmy okay like criminals Jesus Promised hope salvation and Redemption okay so before if you were a criminal there was really no way for you to redeem yourself in society and Jesus is the promise of your salvation and Redemption okay and that's why it was so appealing to a lot of people it became so popular that it became the official religion of the Roman Empire now there's a problem okay because remember Christianity is a revolutionary egalitarian and anti- Authority religion and now it's become an Empire so um they had they had to develop new theories to reinvent Christianity as a establishment religion okay and and as we discussed um last semester the person who did this was Augustine okay Augustine uh remember that last semester we read city of God and confessions and city of God and confessions it's really to adopt Christianity as an establish establishment religion to reduce its revolutionary nature okay so is this all making sense to you and one problem that Austin had was the idea of a second coming okay that the world will end he had he had a major problem with this idea for many reasons okay but the first reason is that you know if the world's going to end why do we have to do anything why can't we just drink and party and play video games every day right what's the point of working that's the first problem right second problem is well well why is Jesus coming back it's because the world sucks right well who's in charge of the world the Catholic church is in charge of the world you understand so Jesus is coming back to destroy the authority of the Catholic church that's not good all right so for many reasons a Austine basically said okay son coming don't worry about it okay Jesus will come back whenever he wants to come back but before he comes back we the Catholic Church will take care of everyone okay all right so why is this important this is important because from Aug onwards we've had Divergent understanding of what the second coming means okay for people who believe in the second coming the term we use is pre millennialism Prem Millennials okay because the second coming promised a thousand years of Peace okay premillennialism is this okay pre means before right so when Jesus comes back he will give us a thousand years of peace and prosperity okay do you understand before he comes back okay when he comes back he will give us a thousand years of peace and prosperity and what Augustine said is no no no no that thousand years is just a metaphor it's not actually going to happen in fact it's already happened because the Catholic church is giving us this thousand years of peace and prosperity okay so he's called a millennial Millennial list which means no okay that thousand years it's a man of for it's not going to really happen Okay so that's a second big idea now as we know because all power became concentrated in the Catholic Church there's a rebellion against the Catholic church called the Reformation okay the reformation and the idea of the Reformation is God did not mean for his authority to be established in the church to be held by priests God is meant to speak to all of us through the Bible okay so what the major difference between the Catholic religion and the Protestant religion is Catholics are not allowed to read the Bible they don't read the Bible whereas Protestants must read the Bible they must seek meaning and guiding from their interpretation of the Bible okay and because of the Reformation you now have thousands tens of thousands of different religions spawning up okay does that make sense all right so you have different religions and you have different descent so let's look at England okay England so England is a king and the before the Catholic church was supposed to have authority over the king and of course the king did not like that so he supported the reformation and he changed the Catholic church and call the Anglican Church okay or the Church of England which he would have authority over but once the Reformation started again you are now allowed to read the Bible and because of that you have thousands of new religions coming up in England okay and they believe different things but one thing that they all believed in is the Bible is the supreme authority okay the the Bible is the supreme authority not the king right so this started a major conflict between these groups and the king and these people are called denters and eventually this led to something called the English Civil War where the denters the pittin killed the king okay and but but then the King was reestablished and so this led to decades and Decades of fighting in um England so one way that um the king tried to resolve this conflict is by setting all these descenders to America okay to America and the idea is this these descenders believe that the Bible is a supreme authority the Bible asks us to do certain things okay because it's written in the Bible for example you're not allowed to drink you're not allowed to dance you're not allowed to have any fun you must focus on your own spiritual Improvement okay you're not allowed to have slaves and so because they believe these things they were constantly in conflict with the establishment okay with people in power and so the King was like guys if you really believe in these things go to America why because there's nobody in America so you can build your own kingdom of heaven you understand okay so this is the origin of the United States the United States was founded as a Christian Nation which put the Bible as the supreme authority okay does that make sense you don't you you guys probably don't know this about the United States you think the United States it's a non-religious secular Multicultural nation that believes in science right that's what it looks like like like from the outside but inside it's Soul it's history it is a Christian Nation dedicated to achieving the kingdom of God on Earth okay and using the Bible as the supreme authority and guide to achieve this Kingdom on on Earth okay does that make sense all right so um these people in America America and these centers okay one question that they always ask themselves is why isn't Jesus back yet okay the second coming what why isn't the second coming back yet and different people have different explanations okay and so from this group come two more groups okay um you have some people who call the post millennial okay and post millist believe that Jesus will come back after we establish a thousand years of the Christian church in the world okay does that make sense so we have to prove that we are worthy of God God's not going to come back and establish this for us we have to do ourselves okay so these These are people call Post which will say that Jesus Jes come after the Thousand Years but then you have another group called dispensationalist I I don't know how to spell this word actually okay anyway this dis is historic okay all right so now the premillennial are split into two other groups so the historic premillennial are people who believe believe what the early Christians believed which is that Jes Jesus is going to come back don't worry when he's coming back just be a good person and he'll come back eventually okay it's not up to us to ask when he's coming back he's God okay he has a plan he knows what he's doing just be patient guys okay that's the historic premillennial and then you have another group called the desp desperation dispensation list premillennial okay and what they believe is something different they believe that oh in the Bible if you read the Bible very very closely it tells you how and why Jesus will return okay what the Bible says is that there must be a nation called Israel okay and Israel is of Jews and then Israel has something called the temple because that's where God resides okay it must have the temple and then what will happen according to the Bible is that the Antichrist okay or Satan lives okay the then and then there will be an antichrist okay Satan who will be the Great Deceiver he'll pretend to be God he'll pretend to be Messiah but he's really Satan okay and then he will launch a war when they all the nations of the world will try to attack Israel and at this point Jesus will come back and he will destroy the Antichrist he will save Israel and he will Usher in a thousand years of Peace before and then a thousand years later you'll have the last judgment where God will judge us to be either worthy or not worthy if we are worthy we'll live on forever if we're not worthy then we'll burn in hell forever okay okay so there are different variations all this Prophecy with what what what they believe okay so in other words the historic historic premillennial what they believe about the coming of Jesus is it's a promise okay Jesus promises to return he's God he will keep his promise he's probably very busy right now with other things so don't worry about it guys okay let's just be patient and Trust in in Jesus okay that's what they believe but the dispensationalist premillennial believe that the prophecy it's a plan okay it's something that we must achieve to bring Jesus back and we do what the Bible's tells us to do which is to say to have Israel as a nation run by the Jews to um have the temple and then to face the Antichrist then Jesus will return okay does that make sense okay now so these are the four different views of the end times okay you have the historic premar who believe that Jesus has promis returned let's just wait guys don't worry about it you have the dispensationalist premillennialist believe that we have to work hard to bring Jesus back okay and then you have the aist who are like now the thousand years it's just a metaphor it's not going to happen don't worry about it guys okay and then you have the post millennial who believe that it's up to us to establish a good World Jesus is not going to do it for us if we do this then Jesus will return okay and so but remember guys okay this is a very simple version of of the four different beliefs even within each belief there are variations okay because again there are two billion people who believe in Christianity and they all believe something different okay does that make sense all right are we clear about the four different um ideas any questions Okay so okay okay so do you you don't actually have to remember this okay but but but all I'm trying to show you is that even with in Christianity there's a debate okay but there's a concern an obsession as to when Jesus will return and how he will return okay does that make sense all right so um this is important now um most most Christians don't believe in dispensationalist premillennialism okay in fact most Christians believe that dispensationalist premillennialism is actually pretty evil why why would it be evil we shouldn't we should not we cannot believe in dispensationalist premillennialism because it's evil why as a Christian why would you think this is evil what's a problem with believing that there's a plan in the Bible what why would that be anti-christian okay so um this is hard okay but but the idea is that with this plan you're trying to manipulate God it does that make sense sense okay you're trying to force God to return and you shouldn't do that if you believe in God then you will trust God and you will try your best to be a good person which is what the Bible asks you to do and when God returns it's none of your business okay it's not AR concern so the dispensationalist premillennial are an extremely controversial minority within Christianity okay Christians most Christians don't actually believe this and they find that a lot of these beliefs to be evil um and and and maybe even uh Blasphemous okay you're insulting god with this sort of thinking okay the problem is that of all these groups the dispensationalist millennial premillennial are the most organized and they're the most fanatical they really believe that this is true okay we know that throughout history those who achieve their objectives are people who tend to be the most United and who are the most fanatical in in a in achieving their objective okay that's the first point second point is that this sort of belief um thrives in a time of massive uncertainty and inequality like the time that we are living in today okay where inequality is growing where there's more instability and uncertainty so in other words there are more and more people who believe in dispensationalist premillennialism okay does that make sense okay all right so why this is important is that dispensationalist premillennialist as Christians have done a lot to cause conflict in the Middle East okay so they're the ones who are actually encouraging conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis they're the ones who want Israel and Iran to go to war why why are they actively encouraging conflict between the Palestinians and and and the Israelis why are they encouraging a war between Iran and Israel why would they want a war between Iran and Israel well no no well Israel is already back why because it's part of the prophecy do you understand it's part of the prophecy the prophecy is that Israel must be was first must first be we Rec constitute it as a nation okay this happened in 1948 and then Israel must go to war with other nations okay does that make sense so the these Christians are actually promoting war between Israel and its neighbors okay does that make sense all right okay so now the other thing is that after the Reformation okay um they developed a new theology call Christian Zionism Christian Zionism okay what is Christian Zionism Christian Zionism is the belief that as a Christian you must support Jews in the return to Israel okay so because remember that um um Israel as a nation was only found in 1948 and then um basically it um in about 70 BCE the Romans burned down the temple okay so for about almost 2,000 years really the Jewish people have not lived in so sorry sorry the Jews were not in control of Israel okay about 2,000 years and there are Christians who believe that it is our responsibility is our duty to help Jews take control over Israel okay and they believe this for many different reasons so Christian Zionist some may believe that that's what the Bible says God promised Israel to the Jews okay so Christian Zionism intersects with dispensationalist prism okay there are Christian Zionist who believe that okay for Jesus to return we also we need Israel back and we need Israel to be in conflict with the Middle East okay so in other words the Middle East okay yeah all of them all of them okay so um so Christian Zionism um I mean you can make me argument that it's a pretty evil idea why because they're using the Jewish people as a tool as a mechanism in order to achieve what they believe which is the return of Jesus okay does that make sense because um Christianity believes that if Jesus returns then all Jews then then then je then Judaism as a religion will cease to exist 2third of all Jews will die in the battle and the and the rest a third will will immediately convert to Christianity okay so you can make the argument that Christian Zionism it's a pretty cynical um and a pretty evil idea okay and then from Christian Zionism we have the idea of Zionism okay and Zionism is the belief among certain Jews that two things okay one is that the Jews are the chosen people of God and that Israel is a promised land and therefore Jews must return to Israel okay does that make sense okay but what's important is before Christian Zionism came along Zionism was not Jews didn't really think this okay so it's it was the Christians who supported this idea of Zionism and even when this idea came about which which was about 200 years ago it was an extremely unpopular religion very extremely unpopular idea the reason why is Jews didn't think they were a race of people they felt they were a religion okay they felt that okay um I'm in I'm in Iraq well guess what I'm an Iraqi like everyone else I may have a different belief but I'm still Iraqi okay they didn't put the religion above their nationality or their uh race okay do you understand and Zionism is like no being a Jewish person is a race and therefore you must return to Israel okay the problem uh with with all this is that in Israel uh Palestine it was mainly Arab people okay so there are very few Jewish people and in fact Zionism couldn't convince anyone to come to um Palestine okay but then of course the Holocaust happened and after the Holocaust many Jews start to go to Israel and in 1948 they established the state of um Israel okay and the Christian Zionist and the dispensationalist premillennialist were we're very happy with the establishment of Israel because they feel that we've achieved the first step in this plan to bring Jesus back okay okay does that make sense okay um so um to summarize the main message is this okay here's what you need to know first is that Christ there are many Christians who believe that Israel and the Jews must be used as a tool to bring Jesus back okay that's the first thing second thing is that America was founded as a Christian Nation therefore its soul is Christian its first leaders were uh Christians who believed in Christian Zionism their descendants now control the military and the foreign policy operatus of America okay the second thing okay and the third thing is that uh Israel as a na as a nation um thinks that it can use chrisan Zionism in order to advance its GE geopolitical interest which is to basically um gain control over the Middle East okay do you understand and that's what's driving the conflict between Israel and Iran does that make sense okay what's driving the conflict between Israel and Iran is America believes it has a religious responsibility to protect Israel against Iran in fact if there's a war between Iran in Israel that's a good thing because it's going to drive this prophecy and the return of Jesus okay and then the and people in Israel are like you know what if we go to war with Iran America is going to fight for us so why not right we don't have to fight this war America is going to do it for us so why not fight this war we lose nothing we gain everything from this war okay so um the idea is that all this is driven by a religious world view understanding the world okay and over time this worldview will only become more popular in America okay does that make sense right okay okay good any questions about this do anything that's not that's not clear about what I just what what what what I just explained do you mean to clarify anything okay um U I don't really understand the question can you can you repeat the question right so okay so both Judaism and Christianity are religions okay there's no race there's no race to the idea of Christianity right you can be Chinese and Christian you can be American and Christian it doesn't matter right and that's what the Jewish people say as well I can be Chinese and Jewish I can be American and Jewish because Jew being being Jewish is a religion but the idea of Zionism is that being Jewish person is a race in fact you are directly descended from the Hebrews in the Bible which is complete nonsense this is not true okay um so um Zionism is the main political belief of Israel right why does is Israel exist because Israel is the promised land that God gave to his chosen people okay and this was a promise that dates back at least 3,000 years to the time of Abraham and it's written in the Bible therefore it must be true okay does that make sense all right any other questions okay that's a great question okay all right so I'm making AR that Christian Zionism and dispensationalist prism will over time become more popular religions in America okay and the question and Charles asked like well why okay let's go back to the founding of Christianity why did Christianity become so popular it became popular um because it was in the Roman Empire okay at that time there something called the Pax Roma which meant the Roman peace okay which meant that the Romans controlled everything therefore there were no Wars therefore people were at peace right and you think that's a good thing right the problem is that if there's peace then you have massive inequality okay because war is a mechanism back then of social Mobility right War killed people and if War kills people that creates opportunities for the people who are alive but if there's no war then what happens is if I'm a rich person guess what guys I become more Rich if you're poor what happens you become more poor okay so as a poor person what do you think you think that life is hopeless life is pointless there's no future there's no hope right and so Jesus comes along and says listen if you believe in me then I will bring the Kingdom of Heaven onto Earth and I will is I will destroy inequality everyone will be the same okay so again back then it was a free lottery ticket today we live in something called the Pax Americana and the Pax Americana same thing where for the past 70 years there's been peace around the world right very few people have died but all that means really is is that inequality has increased fewer and fewer people have money okay guys billionaires make no sense do you understand why should a few people have all the money that makes no sense because money is meant as a mechanism of exchange and transaction right you you use money you should spend your money if it's all in the bank what's the point of that okay so having billionaires is a bad thing and if you go to America you'll find that there are many young people who feel that like life is pointless okay so they're looking for Alternatives you understand and this idea of dispensationalist prism which is like what's happening right now in Israel will lead to a better world that's kind of attractive to you you understand right well because you're poor and you're stuck being poor guys imagine you are um a delivery person in China in Beijing okay you're like a qu right what hope do you have for the future you have your life is pointless and and hopeless no one's going to marry you even if someone marries you you can't have children because you can't afford to have your children go to school you can't buy a house you can't afford anything you're stuck being a delivered person for the rest of your life do you understand do you do you know do you know how many deliv first people there are in China millions and millions okay you have millions and millions of young men have who have no hope in the future right yes because Jesus is coming and he's going to destroy the world we live in that's exactly right Christianity is a free Lottery it cost you nothing and if you win you win big okay right what does it cost you it cost you nothing right okay do you understand that's why it will become more popular over time excuse me right so what you do is you support America you support Israel you you support the war against Iran you want you want more conflict in the Middle East because the conflict in the Middle East will drive the prophecy right do you understand that's what you want you want more war what what what good does peace do you right peace just means like at like tomorrow you'll still be poor and hopeless right but War it's an opportunity for a new world exactly right so all this inequality is making people much more extreme and desperate right which will leave which will lead people more people to believe in dispensationalist premillennialism okay um the government of course does not want any instability but what can the government do about it I you're absolutely right okay so the government could provide social welfare uh to poor people but where will the money come from right you understand okay okay who's more dangerous to you a few rich people or millions of poor people no no no no no no a few rich people are much more D more dangerous than millions of poor people do you understand that's right United right poor people don't know how to unite that's right um yeah but but but they don't um right okay okay so doesn't make sense okay all right so this is this is the so I mean it's hard because this is religion okay and we're not religious I'm not religious you're not religious so we don't we understand how religious people think okay but remember that on this planet on Earth most people are religious and they take their religion very very seriously okay you understand they're willing to die for the religion because they think that if I die from from a religion I'll go to heaven excuse me okay all right so so that's exactly right do you understand okay right because you're not giving people any hope and religion gives people hope listen in the real world the poor will always lose the rich will always win no matter what happens the poor doesn't realize that's right that's why they're poor okay